So, first off, you guys probably heard that Carrie Underwood went and did The Unthinkable for a country music star and endorsed same-sex marriage. No? OK, here’s the gist of it:

“As a married person myself, I don’t know what it’s like to be told I can’t marry somebody I love, and want to marry. I can’t imagine how that must feel. I definitely think we should all have the right to love, and love publicly, the people that we want to love. … Our church is gay friendly. Above all, God wanted us to love others. It’s not about setting rules, or [saying] ’everyone has to be like me’. No. We’re all different. That’s what makes us special. We have to love each other and get on with each other. It’s not up to me to judge anybody.”

Admirable, right? I think it’s a really nice sentiment, especially when you have gay-hating being promoted through the generations, and before children can even understand what it is that they’re “hating.” You know, much like this video:

Disgusting, right? What’s also disgusting is some of the things Carrie‘s Twitter followers are saying about Carrie and her thoughts on gay marriage. Here’re a few prime examples of why forced sterilization is actually not such a bad idea:

“I warned @carrieunderwood fans that their idol was going to get backlash for her support of marriage perversion and I was right! #asusual”

“@carrieunderwood Is a disgrace. Being vegan and supporting gay marriage doesn’t seem very country at all”

“Another day, and a another ’gospel’ artist signed to ’EMI’ comes out supporting gay marriage.@carrieunderwood Unequally signed to the devil”

“Using Christianity to defend and promote homosexuality is insulting. Ugh. Being Saved doesn’t stop you from being dumb. Jesus just let go of the wheel”

So then there’s that. You know, bigotry and judgement and hypocrisy all over the place, in varying shades of f-ckstickery. I’ve often said that I admire Carrie Underwood for being true to who she is and seeming to be genuine and everything, and this is definitely no exception. Carrie knew that she’d get flak for taking a definitive stance on a controversial topic, and she went ahead and did it anyway. Are there many things more admirable than being honest?

Like Taylor Swift here. Taylor Swift looked ok at the Billboard Music Awards. In fact, I’d wager that she had the best look of the night, generally speaking. I really like her dress, and it obviously looks great on her.

Another lady who had a good look was Brandy, but to be honest, I can’t decide if I actually like her dress or if I just think she looks nice because I’ve always been envious of hair like that. Regardless, gold shoes!

Next up is Jordin Sparks, who I’ve always thought was completely adorable, wearing a lovely little dress. This one is remarkable because it’s one of the only dresses I’ve ever seen on a red carpet that I would actually like to wear in real life:

Then there’s one of our favorite ladies, Zooey Deschanel, going after my own heart in a sparkly dress and black tights:

But then we have my personal favorite dress, worn by the very fabulous Carrie Underwood:

You know, I love Carrie Underwood. Even though I’m not a huge fan of her music, I am a huge fan of who she is. She’s fun and she seems sweet; she’s just down-to-earth. There’s not really anything about her that I don’t like, with the exception of her husband, hockey player Mike Fisher. He just seems miserable and controlling. And after reading her recent interview with Vegas magazine, poring over little gems about her day-to-day doings, I’ve come to another conclusion. Carrie’s husband’s miserable. Go figure.

In the interview, Carrie talked about her fuddy-duddy husband who doesn’t like her to look nice for anyone but him and tells us that – surprise, surprise – he’s not generally into hanging out with her while she’s on tour:

“We see each other as much as we can, but he’s not one for road life. He can’t really sleep on the bus. You can’t have a giant bed in the back, so I’m like, ‘You’re touching me! Go away. What are you doing? Scoot over!’ … He gets bored. I think if he ever comes out with us on tour for any length of time, I’m going to have to find him something to do!”

“Good Girl is about that girl that you know or you have been—I know and I have been this girl before—and she’s got stars in her eyes and the guy isn’t good enough for her and doing Lord knows what behind her back, and she thinks the world of him. Love is blind, right? So she doesn’t see him for what he is. And I’m the one trying to talk some sense into her: ‘What is wrong with you? You’re awesome, and you’re with…that?’ It’s really rocking—it’s definitely a foot-tapper.

And Carrie on the lost art of letter-writing and how she spends all of her time working out on the road because there’s nothing else to do:

“American Idol isn’t even just a part of my past—it’s the catalyst that led me here,” she says. “It’s always so much fun going back because so many of the people who worked on the show when I was there still work there. Plus, it’s fun to meet a new batch of contestants and see how bright and starry-eyed they all are.”

So, see? She’s super-famous, and she’s going to be around for a long time to come, and she’s still LIKABLE. That’s more than I can say for some other former American Idol contestants who claim to have made it big CLAY AIKEN.

I like Carrie Underwood. Seriously, I really do. I’m not a huge fan of the whole country thing, but I think she’s a really sweet girl, I love her story, I love that she’s probably the most famous American Idol ever (and ever will be), and I think she’s genuinely a good, positive role model for little girls growing up with a media that constantly tells them that they’re not good enough. Carrie Underwood is awesome, OK?

But I read an interview that she recently did with Self magazine, and I have to say – it was corny as all hell. I was able to appreciate it for its good-heartedness and its truth, but there was deep-down feminist part of me that kind of cringed when I read the things she likes to do to make her husband happy, and the things she seeks to reaffirm that she’s the bees knees.

Shall I go on?

From Self, what she had to say about dressing to please her husband – and no one else:

“I get texts from Mike when I’m on a red carpet that read ‘You’re so hot!’ I like that. Words of affirmation mean a lot to me. But my husband is also pretty conservative. When I’m wearing some outfits, he’ll say, ‘That dress is a little short, don’t ya think?’ He would never tell me I can’t do or wear something or make me feel bad, but I’m a married lady now, so I try to be respectful of my husband. I want to look sexy for him, and I appreciate that he wants to look nice for me, too.”

So, alright. I get that it’s “nice” she wants to look “nice” for her husband, and I’m just so sure he feels the same about her. I have no doubts that he likes to look “nice” for her, “too.” Oh, “sorry.” Did I get “carried away” with the “quotes”? My “bad.” But you know what’s also nice? Looking nice for yourself before looking nice for anyone else. And someone appreciating you for what you look like even when you know you look like hot garbage on a humid day. That’s cool as well.

I’m not saying that Carrie’s husband gets carried away with his machismo role as husband (“That dress is a little short, don’t ya think?”), but I am saying that maybe Carrie just shouldn’t, you know … try so hard, I suppose.

Just like Pink before her, Carrie Underwood has learned that the secret to making the people love you, unconditionally and forever, is to save the life of an adorable, lovable puppy. Or another option could be that Carrie Underwood is a good person with a conscience and a heart who knows that it’s reprehensible to throw your dogs out of your moving vehicle while you’re speeding down the interstate.

Either way, here’s the story of how Carrie Underwood rescued an injured dog, helped nurse it back to health, and became one of my heroes:

The singer pulled over to help suffering dogs on the median of an interstate highway between Oklahoma and Tennessee after paying a visit to her parents’ house over the holidays.

“I had Ace and Penny [Underwood's dogs] and a trunk full of luggage and presents in the SUV,” she wrote on her fan club website on Dec. 30.

The country singer moved one of the dog’s “bloody” and “limping” body to her car. Unfortunately, the other dog had died. “My guess is that the dogs were thrown out of their car by their owners on the highway.”

Underwood took the injured pooch under her wings for the time being and named her Stella.

After a trip to the emergency vet to get groomed, the CMA Awards host tried to find a permanent home for her little friend.

As of New Year’s Day, Carrie reported that Stella was getting house trained, recovering from her road rash and getting her teeth cleaned.

“She follows me around from room to room,” Underwood wrote. “She’s the best Lab I’ve ever been around!”

A day later, we learned that Stella had been adopted by some neighbors down the street, “I cried when she walked out the door,” Underwood wrote. “[Husband Mike Fisher] told me not to be a crazy ex-girlfriend about it and stalk them…I can’t help it! She deserves the best life ever!”

Is anyone else completely in love with Carrie Underwood now? To be honest, the most I’ve ever thought about her was back in 2006 when she had that “Before He Cheats” song everywhere; I thought it went a little too far, that there are probably better ways to deal with your anger towards your boyfriend who might be cheating on you than to key his car and carve your name into the seats, and that if I had to see this one drag queen at the gay bar do that song one more time, I was going to explode. But now I love her! Isn’t that great?!

What about you guys? Do you think more highly of Carrie Underwood now that you’ve heard her rescue story, or are you mostly just completely disgusted by the sorry people who did this to their dogs in the first place? It’s also completely acceptable to feel both of these things.

The good stuff starts around the 5:30 mark. The rest is a lot of hooting and hollering about Hank Williams smoking and drinking before his interviews and how football’s just not the same without that God-awful song he used to sing, and then Hank himself shows up behind them and is saluted by the crowd like he’s some kind of second coming of Christ. Then there’s some uncomfortable making-out-with-Barbies going on, where Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood check if Faith Hill Barbie and Tim McGraw Ken are anatomically correct (spoiler!: they aren’t).

It’s no secret that Carrie Underwood came from a Christian family, but unlike Katy Perry‘s mildly over-the-top mom, Carrie’s a little more laid back and approachable about her faith. Carrie recently interviewed with Fox 411 and discussed her spirituality, and her upcoming role in new movie Soul Surfer, a movie about a female surfer who, in a freak accident, loses most of her arm to a shark attack and seeks refuge from a faith-based counselor, played by Carrie.

Carrie on how ingrained her faith is in her life:

“I grew up in church and have a wonderful family that always supported that. I grew up going to church camp and reading my bible and having different faith books and movies in my life.”

On her upcoming role as a Christian counselor in Soul Surfer:

“I hope that it is very clear that the faith in this movie is more than an undertone, and that the reason Bethany got through everything was because of her faith in God. It’s easy to have faith when things are going great and you’re on top of the world – I’m winning, I’m selling, I’m on tour and this is all great! But this story is about having faith when the chips are down and how to deal with that. We can all learn something from Bethany’s story, even when the little things in our lives don’t go so well, we can take a lesson from her and realize how small that problem really is.”

On this, her first experience with acting:

” … (Acting) was a totally new animal for me, it was so different but everyone on the set really helped me along. They were patient and understood I had never been in a movie before and helped me through it.”

On being ‘boring’ off the camera and away from the stage:

“I live a boring life away from what you see me on camera doing, I’m just the most normal person on the universe. I’m a wife, a mother to my doggies, I’m a maid, I clean the house, I’m pretty boring. We don’t ever go out to eat, we don’t do anything,” she added. “As Carrie the person, I wander around in sweatpants, and when I have to be ‘Carrie Underwood’ I have to look (dressed up.) It’s like a big personality, if I look like this, and always wear makeup; my friends would be like, ‘What are you doing? We’re going to TGI Friday’s, what’s up with this?’”

So, my opinion? This girl is so normal and down-home that it kills me with glee. I’m actually really tickled to see a celebrity that has no problem speaking out about her personal faith, her avoidance of fame, and her wariness about all things new. In a day and age where it’s almost taboo to run around telling people about your religion (I mean, I’m a Christian – and I’m not afraid to admit it to anyone, but then again, I’m not selling billions of records worldwide and being photographed on the red carpet for all to see), I give Carrie mad props for sticking to her guns, being true to herself, and showing people that there’s nothing weird whatsoever about professing their faith.